Igbo no longer second class citizens – Abaribe

Senator representing Abia South Senatorial District, Enyinnaya Abaribe, has said the Igbo should no longer be regarded and treated as second class citizens in Nigeria.

Abaribe, who said this in Aba, while addressing people of his senatorial zone against the backdrop of his recent arrest and detention by the Department of Security Services (DSS), said it is time the Igbo got their dues in the country.

“I am committed to my people leaving freely in Nigeria, do our business in the country without being regarded as second class citizens. We are part of this country and should get whatever this country has that is due to us.

“Nigeria belongs to all of us. And, like I said on the floor of the Senate, patriotism means that you have to believe in your country, stand on your country and defend your country.

“So, I cannot and will not see where all the security apparatus in this country is in the hands of a section of this country and you want me to keep quiet. I will not keep quiet,” he said.

Abaribe said no amount of arrests by the powers that be would make him to keep quiet, so long as things are not going well in the country.
He said the killings in the country are getting out of hand and added that it is not out of place if the person in charge should be blamed for it.

“Everyone should join hands and speak out, somebody is in charge and we have to blame him. So, every effort that is made to make sure we keep quiet will not work. We’ll not keep quiet,” he said.

The leader of the South East caucus in the Senate said although he heard it from grapevine that he was arrested for allegedly sponsoring the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), but, officially, the security outfit is yet to tell him the reason behind his days of incarceration. They came to my house and said it is because I was sponsoring IPOB. But, since searching my house and seeing nothing, I’ve not been told anything. Neither have I been told why I was incarcerated,” he said.

He added that it was an act of patriotism for one to call a spade by its name, stressing that anyone who fails to do so is not patriotic and does not love Nigeria.